Copyright abc
The twin brother of shark victim Mercury Psillakis has led hundreds of surfers in a paddle out in his memory on Sydney's Northern Beaches on Saturday morning. Mr Psillakis was mauled by a white shark, between 3.4 to 3.6 metres in length, a day before Father's Day while surfing with a group of friends at Long Reef Beach near Dee Why. The 57-year-old was just 100m from the shore and had been in the ocean for half-an-hour when he, along with his board, disappeared underwater. A couple of other surfers saw him in the surf and managed to get him back to shore. He had lost a lot of blood by then and was unresponsive. At the time, authorities said he was missing "a number of limbs". Three weeks on, aerial vision from the same location of the attack on Saturday, September 6, shows hundreds of people gathered on the sand on a hot, cloudy Sydney day. They were told to gather at 11am at the Long Reef Boardriders Association's black tent. In the footage, a large group can be seen getting on their surfboards and paddleboards to swim out, while hundreds more remained on the shore watching on. Those in the ocean clustered in groups before fanning out to form a large circle. They sat on their boards holding hands and making splashes as twin brother Mike Psillakis addressed the circle. Mike's emotional tribute Before the event Mike Psillakis ran along the beach holding his surfboard in a tribute to what the pair did every morning. He addressed the crowd, speaking through tears of their "beautiful" connection, and how he had always looked up to him, as Mercury Psillakis's wife and daughter listened on. Mike Psillakis recounted how every day before hitting the waves "without fail" his twin would message him: "Where are you? What's it like?" "When my brother hit the sand I could just tell it was him, I could feel him and then I'd wave my board and he would wave it back the same. "And then if I jumped up-and-down he knew it was pumping and start running up the beach, that was our code." Along with their daily surf, he said, they always had a laugh. "We egged each other on all the time, it was just banter, it was fun and we'd push each other so much. "I still feel him with me, giving me little whispers." Ceremony 'way of saying goodbye to a fellow surfer' Natasha Gee, president of the Long Reef Boardriders Association, said the Psillakis brothers had been members since they were young, and the ceremony was "our way of saying goodbye to a fellow surfer". "The circle represents and symbolises unity, togetherness, camaraderie, love of one another," Ms Gee said. "The surfing community has been an amazing support for all Long Reef and Dee Why surfers and together we can overcome anything." Sanja Korda was at the paddle out. She described it as "beautiful, heartwarming, so very special" on social media. "The paddle out for Merc was something surreal, the turn out was amazing,' Ms Korda said in her post. "My condolences to the entire Psillakis family, today took courage and strength … the beaches wraps its arms around you in a warm hug, our collective prayers go out to you. Xo." In the days after the attack Mercury Psillakis's friends spoke of how he tried to help his friends to safety, calling his action a "heroic" final act. "Merc spotted the shark early, informed the other surfers in the water to band together and to try and get back to shore safely," former professional surfer Toby Martin and long-term friend told the ABC. A funeral for Mr Psillakis was held at Archangel Michael Greek Orthodox Church on September 18.
